We use the word
"injured" to describe any hedgehogs who have become shocked,
infected or ill from injury, dehydrated or starving from injury, and abused
hedgehogs.

Every year, very
sadly, countless numbers of hedgehogs are either injured on the roads, burned under
bonfires; or lose whole or part limbs, portions of the face/nose or
spines, through being caught by strimmers and mowers - we get a lot of these
brought to us, EVERY year! Also, hogs that have been deliberately abused
and injured by human hands! The worst case that always sticks in my
mind, and will always be there, was of a full-grown hedgehog I received in
December, 2000. This one had been stabbed through the head, via one of
his eyes, and he was gasping and screaming - absolutely heartbreaking!
All the ones that end up in our care require immediate veterinary attention!

Every year, we regularly
put out appeals in the Media, asking members of the public to please be
careful, when strimming and mowing, and in the Autumn, check under bonfire
stacks BEFORE setting them alight! They are inviting places for sleepy
hedgehogs, about to go into hibernation. In the late-Spring and Summer,
hedgehogs like to sleep in long grass. Please check with your foot, for
slumbering hogs, before commencing your work. Injured hedgehogs will be
suffering from shock and blood loss; infection very soon will set in, if left
untreated. But sometimes they are already badly infected before they are
found, (the smell of infection is awful!). On top of this, fly-strike is
a real problem in the warmer months of the year.

Hedgehogs are almost
totally Nocturnal - they are active only at night, from dusk, onwards, and
spend the daylight hours asleep. So, if you find one out in the day,
SOMETHING IS WRONG! Very sick hogs/ hoglets found by members of the
public, are found wondering (and often wobbling) about in daylight,
either in their gardens or on the road - which of course, puts them at even
greater risk!

Sick or injured hedgehogs
can be found at ANY time of the year - yes, those we take in includes
baby hoglets even at Christmas or in January!

If you find a sick or
injured hedgehog, please, wearing a pair of gardening gloves, pick the
poor hog up and carefully put him/her in a small cardboard box. Sick
hedgehogs and those in shock, need WARMTH. Within the bottom of the box,
place a hot water-bottle, well wrapped in a towel....obviously, the hedgehog
placed on top of the heat-source, not underneath it. Then, phone us as
soon as possible! We have two main numbers - 07796
365029 (manned 24 hours) and 01455
614013. This covers quite a wide area, but if you are outside
these numbers' area, please give your telephone number, so we can call you
back as soon as possible with a contact number and address for your area.
Where ever is possible, someone will come to collect the hedgehog.

If you can't get hold of
anyone the first time you call, try again a bit later on - because, it is
likely the Rescuer will have been called out, or someone is already calling,
simultaneously. However, the 24-hour number is available on hand, even
when called out.

You are, of course,
welcome to contact us again at a later date, to find out how your rescued
prickly friend is getting on. Our aim is to save as many hedgehogs as we
can! But, sadly, we can't save them all - some are just too weak or sick
to survive, although we always TRY OUR VERY BEST TO HELP! The most
vulnerable are the tiny babies - when found orphaned, they require warmth
and food, very quickly!

FLY-STRIKE: Injured
and sick hedgehogs very often have a lot of fly eggs laid on moist areas of
the body (can be removed using tweezers) and on wounds, and often we receive
hogs with the maggots already hatched - so we need to act very quickly to
remove them!

He/she is likely to be
infested with fleas and/or ticks. If so, DON'T PANIC!
Hedgehog fleas are a species in their own right; they are not dog or cat
fleas, and won't stay on a dog or a cat. Ticks are the small bluish-grey
"nodules", which seem to be most commonly found around the eyes
and behind the ears. Fully-gorged ticks will be about the size of a pea. Over
the years, I have received some very bad cases, whereby the poor hog is
absolutely covered in ticks - this is dangerous to an already badly dehydrated
hedgehog. The easiest (and least messy) method of removing ticks, is to
grip the body of the tick with a pair of tweezers, then turn anti-clockwise,
until the mouthparts lose their grip. DO NOT PULL from behind, otherwise
the mouthparts will be left embedded in the skin, and will cause
infection. Removal of ticks can be very difficult and time-consuming,
and is best left to the Rescuer you have called out; it's always a race
against time to save very sick hedgehogs!

We hope at the end of
this Website to list as many Rescuers contacts as we can, including
those already on our Membership.